Sacramento County's sheriff is harshly criticizing President Barack Obama's approach to illegal immigration after the recent fatal shootings of two deputies, just as the president announces his own executive action on the issue.

Sheriff Scott Jones vowed to crusade against illegal immigration after the shooting rampage last month by a Mexican man with a long criminal history who was in the country illegally.

"Simply stated, you're the only singular person in this entire country that can advance or adopt meaningful immigration reform," Jones said, addressing the president directly in the video posted by his office Wednesday on YouTube. "By that very definition then, it is your singular failure alone as to why we do not yet have reform, why America continues to be at risk, and new crimes and new victims are mounting each and every day in every single state."

Jones said any national immigration policy must start with securing the nation's borders and should not include amnesty or deferred action for those who are in the country illegally. He also blamed the president for what he termed "the hands-off" immigration policy adopted by federal agencies.

Related Content

ICE spokeswoman Virginia Kice said the shooter's alias is Marcelo Marquez and his real name is Luis Enrique Monroy-Bracamonte.

Sacramento County Deputy Danny Oliver, 47, was killed in the spree. The other slain officer was Placer County Deputy Michael David Davis Jr., 42.

In a prime-time address Thursday night, Obama is expected to announce an executive order that would allow about 5 million immigrants to remain in the country. The vast majority of those would be parents who are in the country illegally but whose children are U.S. citizens or permanent residents.

The man charged with killing the two deputies is the type of immigrant the Obama administration has worked aggressively to deport.

The administration has had more than 2 million deportations, with a priority on deporting anyone who poses a public safety threat or has a serious immigration history.

In his eight-minute video, Jones sits behind a desk in uniform, an American flag by his side. He says he does not directly blame Obama for the deaths last month of Sacramento County Sheriff's Deputy Danny Oliver or Placer County Sheriff's Detective Michael Davis Jr. A third deputy and a bystander also were wounded.

But he said the shooting suspect, Utah resident Luis Enrique Monroy-Bracamonte, had been deported four times - twice more than previously disclosed by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Monroy-Bracamonte and his wife, Janelle Marquez Monroy, have not yet entered pleas to multiple charges, including murder.

Jones lauded California's large and productive population of immigrants who are in the country illegally and said he is not anti-immigration. But he said that population also includes criminals.

"Like their American criminal counterparts, they commit murders, sexual assaults, kidnaps, thefts, engage in violent gang activity and murder police officers. The problem I have is I can't tell which ones are good and which ones are evil, and neither can you. By their very definition, they are undocumented, untracked, untraced and unaccounted for," he said.

"See, this is not about racism," Jones added later. "It is about an increasingly violent and uncertain world in which we are inadequately protected."

Jones is wrong to use the actions of one person to tar other immigrants, and he is wrong to say that Obama has done little to enforce border laws, said Jorge-Mario Cabrera, spokesman for the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles. The organization has previously criticized the president for going too far in deporting immigrants.

"Deporting people massively is not the answer, criminalizing everyone is certainly not humane or practical, and blaming everyone for the actions of one person is certainly unreasonable, to say the least," Cabrera said, although he said he understood Jones' anger over the death of his deputy.

Jones urged other law enforcement officials to join him in posting similar videos in an attempt to influence immigration policy. His video had been viewed nearly 26,800 times by mid-day Thursday.

In Arizona, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio last month also used the deaths of the two California deputies to call for changes, saying his office had arrested Bracamonte in 1996 and turned him over for deportation.

Many Californians celebrate deportation relief

The stakes for President Barack Obama's executive action on immigration are particularly high in California, which has the largest number of people living illegally than any other state by far. For activists hardened by years of setbacks, celebrations began even before the president's televised speech Thursday evening.

From San Diego to Santa Rosa, activists invited friends to watch the speech. About a dozen groups planned to watch on a large screen in the streets of downtown Los Angeles and hear a performance by the alternative rock band La Santa Cecilia.

"We're going to have plenty of Kleenex around," said Jorge-Mario Cabrera, spokesman for the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, which planned its own screening of the president's speech and a road trip to Las Vegas, where Obama will rally support for his plan on Friday. "This is a watch party that I'm going to enjoy tremendously."

The United Farm Workers organized celebrations in Fresno, Bakersfield and six other California cities. The group's president, Arturo Rodriguez, was briefed on the plan by Obama and estimates that 250,000 farmworkers will be shielded from deportation, including 125,000 in California.

Obama's measures could make as many as 5 million people eligible for work permits, with the broadest action likely aimed at extending deportation protections to parents of U.S. citizens and permanent residents, as long as those parents have been in the country for at least five years.

Many Mexicans settled in California after Mexico's economy collapsed in 1982, and Central Americans came in the 1980s to escape civil war, making the state's immigrant population more established than in other states. Those deeper roots may mean that immigrants in California are more likely to benefit.

The independent Migration Policy Institute estimates that nearly 1.6 million people in California will be shielded from deportation out of 5.2 million nationwide.

The Pew Research Hispanic Trends Project estimates California had 2.45 million people living illegally in 2012 out of 11.2 million nationwide.

Not all Californians celebrated. Escondido Mayor Sam Abed, who has championed local policies aimed at reducing illegal immigration in his city of 150,000 people, said he wouldn't listen to Obama's speech.

"This president has failed this country. He has failed the rule of law," Abed said. "It's abuse of power. This should be done by the Congress."